Veggie Pasta

My husband and I recently celebrated 3 years of wedded bliss. We went out for a nice dinner at a restaurant downtown Madison and had a fabulous meal. We both ordered dishes that were not complicated but due to all the fresh ingredients it was remarkably delish! Of course it got me thinking I can make dishes similar to the ones we had.

We got our CSA this week and it was once again FULL of great organic goodies so I decided to make an easy yet yummy dish using a lot of our veggies.

The first thing I did was dice up on tomato and minced one clove of garlic. I mixed them together in a bowl and added some spices to it (Italian spices). I threw the mixture into the fridge and let it sit for the entire day, mixing every now and then so that all the flavors could blend together.


I then cut up a zucchini and one summer squash, leaving the skins on both. I chopped up part of an onion and minced one more clove of garlic.
I fried all the veggies up to the point that they were warm but not mushy. I like my veggies to still have a slight crunch when I eat them.


I also washed and cut in half about a handful of cerise orange tomatoes. They look just like cherry tomatoes but a tad smaller and they are a pale orange color. I had never used them before but they were in the CSA and they had a great taste to them. I added these to the last couple minutes of frying for the veggies-again enough to make them warm but not enough to make them complete mush.



While the veggies were cooking I cooked up some chopped chicken and made some pasta, I used thin spaghetti noodles.

Once everything was done cooking I mixed it all together and threw in some mozzarella pearls. This allowed the warmth of the dish to slightly melt the mozzarella but not enough for it too completely melt.

To finish I put the tomato/garlic mixture that was marinating all day over the top as a “cold sauce”. Overall it was amazingly good.


I think the next time I cook it I will cook the veggies on a lower heat for a longer time to let the flavors of all the veggies blend together. When I ate the leftovers for lunch today it seemed more flavorful and the only reasoning I can come up with is that it had time to sit and blend together. I also added cracked black pepper today.
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